Today, I woke up to the president’s email about the tragedy that occurred yesterday. It’s strange when you look back and think “That’ll never happen to my campus.” It’s incredibly saddening, but the president’s message along with the dozens of tributes across campus is a reminder that the campus is united for something. Let us mourn together as Longhorns. #TexasStrong

Heh, a blog about blogging. This should be interesting. To start off, I’ve never been much of a blogger myself, however, it’s really refreshing to get an assignment where I can pour my thoughts into my work. I think that’s the essence of blogging when you break it down. There’s no defined style to it, and you can write freely. That’s what made blogging a rather pleasurable experience.

Of course, where there’s pros, there’s bound to be cons. As someone who is constantly writing papers (the life of a college student), you’re so used to being limited to writing in a defined style, like AP, APA, MLA, etc (let’s not even bring up Chicago). Blogging may or may not have been a little difficult, as when you’re so used to writing these styles, you find yourself in doubt of your own writing? Does it meet the expectations? Oh wait, it’s just a blog. No need for in text citations (doesn’t mean you can still plagiarize of course).

I could say blogging overall will be hugely beneficial in the years to come. As a PR major, I already am engaged in a plethora of writing, whether its assignments for class, writing up feeds for my student organization, or working with clients. Why not keep track of it? With just about every company out there now in touch with the internet and social media, there’s no doubt the style of blogging finds itself in the various industries. People like to read this. It makes a big-time corporation seem more human. It makes a small-time organization seem more professional. It gives people a voice.

Our client, the Student Alumni Association of TTAA, has very solid social media accounts by first glance. However, despite that, the problem lies with their lack of dedicated students joining to become alumni. One of the many things my team and I learned was that with any organization, you must engage further with your audience and eliminate clutter, which lead to many of our suggestions.

Better engaging with the audience requires an intensive focus on replying back to comments through your posts, whether positive or negative. With just about every other major organization on board with this strategy (such as Wendy’s), it’s paramount to engage with these people. It shows not only your audience, but those outside the bubble that you are dedicated to your people.

To clarify on social media “clutter”, you would have to take a look at their Periscope account, which sits idly on their social media pages. With an astonishing 7 followers, and their last photo being posted back in 2013, it’s vital to seek better management of this account or straight up delete it. Otherwise, it looks unprofessional in how little it’s handled.

Besides social media, there’s obviously more issues that plague the Student Alumni Association, such as pricing, lack of student vacations, and the threat of other organizations, all which we have suggested in our audit.

One of Gamestop’s KPI’s is customer loyalty and retention, which is a measurement of how the company attracts regulars and their ability to keep them buying. Basically a long-term relationship.

Gamestop’s objective is increase use of Gamestop Pro-member redemptions and awards system by 40% in 2017.

Before we go further, it’s worth noting that Gamestop’s customer segment is none other than the people who game the most: Millenials. With that, a strategy to achieve this is reach out to millennials by ease of access via smartphone and application technologies. To achieve this, the strategy calls for the tactic of creating an easy-to-use application for smartphones to keep track of redemption rewards and credits.

As a Millennial myself, I can vouch that having an application to keep track of points on your phone is definitely more useful than a computer. It makes the process of looking it up at the shop last minute a lot less painful.

According to the top hit on Google, Digital Asset Management (DAM) is the concept of an effective solution for enterprises to store, organize, find, retrieve, and share digital files. A digital library provide peers, employees, clients, contractors, and other stakeholders controlled access to digital assets. There are several different DAM products, notable ones being Webdam, Bynder, MediaValet, IntelligenceBank DAM, etc.

Basically, DAM software is key for brands to save an efficient amount of time and money.

It’s pretty safe to say that DAM is the tool to use when trying to keep a brand consistent of its image, despite us not learning about it fully yet. It IS a software meant to manage digital content, so it shouldn’t be a problem managing it across teams or the world. I guess we’ll learn more about it in further detail in the upcoming weeks?

Wendy’s Twitter shenanigans may be hilarious to look at, but is actually a very important concept today. Listening and engagement on social media helps brands stand out to those who don’t reach out, as the brands who do seem more relatable with a persona.

As I mentioned above, Wendy’s recent Twitter roasting is a great example. When Wendy’s was promoting their never-frozen beef, an angry customer shot back, claiming Wendy’s had lied. The full exchange can be seen here. After the roasting, a plethora of Twitter users begged for Wendy’s to roast them. Only such a response could garner up a hilarious viral moment.

You could say that even in silly situations where a member of the public attempts defamation, don’t just stand there silently. Fight back!

Oh gosh. To be honest, I think I got a C in Public Relations Strategies. Not that it’s an excuse, but I was more cruising along back in my early years before I realized that I was supposed to get good grades in college. It wasn’t until my junior year I got my act together.

But back to the topic at hand. Every student with a degree in PR can expect to take PR strategies, which is essentially going through the nuts and bolts of practicing PR. It’s pretty much a more hands on class than Principles of PR, the intro class. Let’s get down to facts.

Tactics Drive Strategy

People like to mix these up. A good strategy can set your brand’s campaign in motion. But in order to accomplish that, you need tactics. Just like in a war, a tactic are small steps taken to inch closer to potential victory. For wartime, this typically involves positioning of units and troops. The PR world is kind of similar. Examples include use of specific social media platforms, contests for participants, video spotlights, etc.

The SWOT Analysis

I cannot count how many times I’ve had to whip these out. Basically, it’s a handy chart that displays a brand campaign’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. If you have a grasp at these four concepts for your situation, it becomes a very nice reference tool.

You Must Deal with a Crisis

Everyone who hasn’t lived under a rock surely knows how disastrous the BP oil spill was. Whether or not you have a crisis plan buried away, you must deal with these issues accordingly and professionally. BP’s CEO did not, and made the problem about himself. Not the most appropriate way to handle things. Alternatively, you can also screw up a crisis by straight up refusing to comment. Always take the responsibility necessary and have something to say.

Know your Audience

This should be self-explanatory. Seriously, don’t promote your brand to the completely wrong audience. They probably won’t appreciate it.

Public Relations Isn’t Necessarily Spin

For what I remember, this was literally the first lesson our professor taught us. While spin can sometimes be inevitable in the worst situations, the great thing about promoting a brand is that you can promote what they are. Audiences like to be told straight up what to expect, and if you can deliver that promise with a little promotion, there’s no need to spin anything.